Testimonials: Multiples

Dorothy is an angel! We called Dorothy to come and help us when after almost 8 months our twins were not sleeping through the night and were seldom sleeping more than 40 minutes at nap times. Needless to say we were a very overtired and grumpy family! Dorothy gave us the tools we needed to make gentle, positive changes to our babies feeding and sleeping routine and the support we needed to believe in ourselves as parents. With Dorothy’s continued help and support, within a few weeks our babies were sleeping soundly for 12 hours overnight and having good 1.5-2 hour naps twice a day! This has made a huge impact on our lives as we’re all so much happier, more rested and relaxed. Thank you Dorothy for being down to earth, having a good laugh with us and for the huge impact you’ve had on our lives. Thank you for being a fountain of knowledge and for being so generous with sending sippy cups!! Oscar and Ruby LOVE their NUK First Choice Training Bottles.. It’s the only bottle that they will drink from – and gives us a little freedom to leave them with their grandparents over feed times.Laura Lynch – April 2016

Dorothy is amazing! She help us immensely with our twins – we had them sleeping through the night within two nights! She gave us personalised advice and routines that worked for our family but what was most valuable to me was her ongoing support and calming, reassuring manner. No matter what my question or worry was, Dorothy was there to chat it through with me, and after talking with her I always felt happy and more confident.
Thanks Dorothy!Veronica Copestake – April 2016

The most valuable gift Dorothy gave was that she taught us was to be confident parents. Our twins were born 8 weeks premature meaning my partner and I hadn’t even thought of antenatal classes or something similar before we were thrown into parenthood. Her approach to settling to sleep was one that I felt comfortable with and was a good balance of teaching our babies to fall asleep on their own but in a nurturing way. Whilst it might have felt tough at times, I continued with her advice and now have twins that not only sleep through each others noise, through the night for sometime now but are fantastic sleepers in general which in turn makes us more relaxed and happy parents. We are often complimented on our ‘laid back’ babies. She not only offers fantastic sleeping advice but in areas of ones routine that is realistic and offers practical tips that are easy to work towards. I appreciate the way she evaluates your situation as a whole as sleep, meals and daily routine all have a flow on affect from each other. Dorothy also has some very educated advice when it comes to nutrition for our babies if you need help with this. We appreciate her time as she is a kind, trustworthy and approachable person and we will continue to ask for her help as we work through this tiring but awesome journey as parents of multiples.Alisha Colling – November 2015

We struggled for way too long with one of our twin girls waking 6-8 times a night. Dorothy guided us through changing routines, meals and just general stuff. Within six weeks we had twins that slept from 7-7. But Dorothy’s help didn’t stop there, she rang regularly while my husband was deployed with the military just to check that everything was alright. She was wonderful!!Nikki Fox – October 2015

Well it’s only taken me 2 ½ years to write this!! What an amazing lady Dorothy Waide is. We have twin girls and started using Dorothy when the girls were 9 months as we had many late nights due to the twins not settling for their nightly sleep.
My first conversation I had with Dorothy, Dorothy asked what time the girls were going to sleep and at that stage the girls weren’t going to sleep until 9/10pm! Dorothy’s reply was – “when do you and your husband get time to spend with each other?” Followed by “Right, firstly we need to get you and your husband spending more time together and then sort those girls out!”
I loved that Dorothy thought not only about how to remedy our babies sleeping habit but it was also important to ensure my husband and I were spending time together. What impressed us about Dorothy is that she doesn’t immediately decide how to resolve the issue at hand, Dorothy takes into account all aspects of what is happening in the child’s/children’s little life and makes an assessment based on what you tell her. We never felt that Dorothy judged how we were parenting our twins and rather than telling us our system/s was incorrect worked with us to improve them. We have used Dorothy on four occasions and have had Skype sessions whilst overseas.
We talk about and recommend Dorothy whenever the opportunity arises and one thing my husband always mentions is he felt Dorothy took time out to speak with him which he appreciated as on most occasions the dad gets left out of these situations and the focus is on mum and baby/babies.
Many thanks Dorothy and you are forever on speed dial in our phones!Trudy & Brendon Ford – May 2015

Dorothy is a miracle, she is the best, every single tip works for us. My twin girls are super easy babies because I used all the techniques I’ve learned with Dorothy since birth.
Thank you for being such a great person.
Much love from me, Grant, Ruby and Olivia xxxClaudia Pereira — February 2015

Dorothy was a god send when I was having trouble getting my twinsets had reflux to sleep during the day. They wouldn’t go down and for the next 30 minutes I would be in and out settling before they refused to go back to sleep. Now they go down so easily and sleep well. Dorothy also provided me with emotional support and went above and beyond what we had got her in to help with. She really is the best in the business.Anna Reeve — October 2014

I have identical twin boys and I can safely say they weren’t the most settled babies. Luckily at 17 weeks I had one 7 to 7 sleeper and the other never slept a full night. I had done controlled crying at a year with my non sleeper and bedtime extinction at age 2.

At 28 months we had got into the bedtime situation of sitting in the bedroom for 5 minutes then closing the door which ended in my good sleeper crying himself to sleep on the floor and demanding mummy sit. Or sometimes giving in and sitting until they were asleep.

During this time my sleeper suddenly started wakening in the night for hours. It started with a wake up one night I wasn’t at home and daddy didn’t suffice so it went on for 4 hrs before he gave in. The next night it went on for 2.5hrs and he didn’t want me, stood in the hallway, pushed me away, cornered himself at the front door, didn’t want a drink, pee. I was at a loss what to do. This continued for about 3 weeks, I could see a pattern, he woke, came out of his room defiant, fought me sometimes with fists until he calmed, sometimes asked for a pee, then would get himself into bed back to sleep. I usually just sat on the floor ignoring him, saying sleeptime. It got down to 45 mins.

Exhausted and at the point of despair I saw Dorothy, she gave me a plan for bedtime. Both into bed, door open, bedtime routine as normal starting at 6.30, every time they came out they got returned to bed. I decided I would give them 20 mins of this before they got told last chance. Then it was door closed. I carried this out but only closed it for a minute, then opened and said bedtime, into bed boys. After a week i no longer had to close the door, now it’s just brilliant. I have a life by 7.15 pm!

She also advised me to stop daytime sleeps, which were a stress as I was driving them to sleep.

The night times continued and eventually petered out. I followed Dorothy’s advice and cut out sweet deserts and changed to natural yoghurt only and cut out hard cheeses. We kept to the gro clock rules and had a reward which the boys chose to fly a kite with daddy if they stayed in bed all night until mr sun…..it took a lot of postponing until they eventually managed it all night and got to fly their kites!Catherine – 2014

Hi Dorothy, the girls are doing really good. It’s been weeks since we’ve had anyone wake at night, & we usually don’t hear anybody in the morning until 7am now, unless they wake for a quick play before going back to sleep – very cute. We are finally making some progress with solids too, they are way more interested now. Basically everything’s going really well! Thanks so much again for all your help 🙂 xShimisha Yardley

As a mother of newborn twins and a toddler, Dorothy was a life saver helping us quickly establish a routine that worked for all of the family and made life manageable. She has a wealth of knowledge and has a solution for every problem but she is especially good at giving you confidence with your own style and ensuring any routine works for the mother and not just the babies. By 12 weeks my twins were sleeping through the night and were (and still are) very contented babies. I am a contented mother too! xGinny Wethey

“As a mother of newborn twins and a toddler, Dorothy was a life saver helping us quickly establish a routine that worked for all of the family and made life manageable. She has a wealth of knowledge and has a solution for every problem but she is especially good at giving you confidence with your own style and ensuring any routine works for the mother and not just the babies. By 12 weeks my twins were sleeping through the night and were (and still are) very contented babies. I am a contented mother too!”Virginia – 2012

“One of the most incredible gifts she gave me was her invaluable guidance and coaching in breastfeeding. Dorothy’s support and encouragement enabled me to successfully breastfeed our twin boys for six months”.Fiona Angelini

“She was able to feed him and calm him when nobody else could and got him on a reasonable schedule that made life after Dorothy left tolerable. In addition to the actual care of our children, Dorothy is a tremendous teacher”.A. Ryan Newman

Dorothy I just want to say how thrilled I am with the advice and support I have received from you.
After surviving the extremely difficult early years of our older preschooler who had severe allergies, reflux and constipation which affected her sleep I honestly thought that twins would be a breeze, and they were to begin with. Looking back over their 1st year I can now clearly see where I failed to recognize that they should be past requiring nighttime feeding and where things I did to ensure the other twin, my husband, my preschooler and visitors were not disturbed in the night had led to some very bad sleeping habits for them. It is definitely a thing of beauty to see my two youngest sleeping peacefullly and I am extremely pleased that they have now learnt great sleeping habits for both day and nighttime sleeps.
You focused the goal clearly in front of me and gave me the tools to suceed and the support I needed when wavering.
Thank you to listening and offering advice which was practical and realistic for our family situation.
Kind Regards,Andrea Staniford